Mary C. Murphy, University College Cork, urges caution in linking Northern Ireland support for remaining in the EU with growing support for a united Ireland.

In 1998, the Northern Ireland electorate voted in a historic referendum to support the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement. The Agreement was reached following multi-party talks and was an integral part of the Northern Ireland peace process. Turnout for the referendum was 81%. Of those who voted, 71% voted in support of the Agreement.

Stephen Tierney suggests that the referendum outcome should be seen for what it is: a narrow but clear constitutional decision of the highest significance. This post originally appeared on the UK Constitutional Law Association blog.

Judging by the referendum result, it may seem obvious that Scots are more European than their neighbours to the south but, says David McCrone, the binary choice in a referendum masks a more complex picture.

Summary: This document explains how Northern Ireland and Scotland should and could stay within the European Union while remaining inside the United Kingdom; why this proposal need not prevent and may in fact facilitate England and Wales in leaving the EU; and why this compromise proposal is in accordance with the respective preferences of the peoples of the two Unions within the UK who voted in the advisory referendum held on June 23 2016.

A pattern is emerging post-Brexit: it’s the women who are stepping forward, as male political leaders resign from the enormous task of taking Britain out of the EU. Prof Susan Murphy says that such a development should come as no surprise.

"Leadership required for G7 nation in crisis; will the women please step in?"

This is not an advert that you’re likely to see in the job pages of The Economist, but at the rate that unlikely scenarios are taking hold of real British politics, one is left to wonder.

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Aileen McHarg looks at last week’s decision by the Supreme Court in the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill reference which demonstrates both the strength and the weakness of Holyrood as a legislature.

The Supreme Court's ruling on the Scottish Continuity Bill gave both sides something but acknowledged that the vast bulk of the Bill was within Holyrood's competence at the time it was passed however, suggests Sionaidh Douglas-Scott, the strong feeling that devolved interests are not taken seriously highlights underlying fractures within the Union.

Although the N-VA has insisted it left the Belgian government to pursue ’principled opposition’ those principle are, says Coree Brown Swan, at the very least informed by a strategy that allows it to maintain policy influence from outside government while countering the electoral threat posed by a resurgent Vlaams Belang.